Technology helps, and hurts, long-distance love

Chinese legend has it that star-crossed lovers Zhinu and Niulang, banished to opposite sides of the Milky Way, are only reunited once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh moon, when a flock of magpies forms a bridge across the "silver river."

Qixi Festival - or Chinese Valentine's Day - commemorates on Tuesday the annual meeting of that folkloric couple.

While lovers head out on romantic dates across China on Tuesday, many of the approximately 50 million Chinese who live abroad will have to make do with mobile apps to connect with partners back home.